Public Comment

Dear City Council, Thank you for your hard work. I am writing you to ask you to impanel the members of the Cleveland Commission on Black Women and Girls. It has been almost one full year since the Bibb Administration and Cleveland City Council promised not only to pass The Cleveland Commission on Black Women and Girls (Ordinance No. 373-2022), but to give voice to Black Women through empower empanelled members aiming to change the liveability metrics for Black Women in Cleveland. As the recent report - Project Noir - demonstrated, Black women experience grave inequities in healthcare, workplaces, education, and other institutions are arenas of life. It is critical that we impanel members on this Commission to examine and address these inequities, so that Cleveland can become a city where all Black women and girls can thrive. Thank you. Katie Clonan-Roy

This commission was authorized a year ago and yet has empaneled no members. This administration is behaving the same way toward woman that previous ones have. Decisions about and for women continue to be made by those that are not. The outcomes for women in cleveland is the worst for any city in the country. We must fix this at the city and county level. Seat and empower the committee now!

In this day and age of thinking out of the box, it’s disappointing not to see more creative solutions to the needs of the residents of the Euclid Beach Trailer Park. I do not understand why this plan did not include a study of similar projects that have successfully addressed the housing needs of communities with similar economic challenges in the USA, Canada and worldwide. It seems obvious that the area is rich in diversity, natural resources, and open spaces that could serve all.

Thank you for considering the Medicare for All Resolution. City Council is considering helping to pay off medical debt of thousands of residents at this time. This is a great step, and fortunate that there is funding available from ARPA. In normal times, people are left on their own to figure out whether to pay for housing, food and medical care. This is not just an issue with seniors, it is everybody. We need universal healthcare, and it is possible, but more importantly it is humane. I am asking that all members of City Council support the non-binding resolution and stand up for the health and well being of all citizens in Cleveland.

It goes for anyone that steals money it is wrong an watch out for black mailers too me I have a badge that I won as a lawsuit for a real reason blaming me for something that is not true.

I can't believe you are even addressing this matter. Seriously,with all the other issues in Cleveland your concerned about the flavor of cigarettes that will be available in surrounding cities. So hurt the little ma and pa stores in Cleveland. You should be ashamed to even mention this with all that is going on in Cleveland.

The National Hookah Community Association (NHCA) brings together, and serves as the voice of, hookah producers, distributors, sellers, lounge owners, consumers, and community members who support the preservation of hookah’s cultural traditions. We are writing to request that as you consider a ban on flavored tobacco products, you acknowledge the cultural significance of hookah to minority and immigrant populations as well as the lack of youth access to, and use of, the product. California took a historic step just last month by enacting a statewide ban on flavored tobacco products, which exempted hookah, for these reasons. NHCA has worked with California, and with many other state and local governments including Colorado, Columbus, Denver, San Diego, San Jose, Los Angeles, and others, to include exemptions for hookah in recent flavor ban legislation. Hookah is a small category in the tobacco space, making up only roughly 0.005% of nicotine product sales. However, hookah is an important cultural practice to many and one that has existed for centuries, originating in the Middle East and India. Today, a broad cross-section of immigrants in the U.S. from around the world enjoy hookah at home and in lounges as a centerpiece for cultural, business, and social gatherings. Hookah is widely used by Middle Eastern, Armenian, Turkish, East African, Indian, Persian, Indonesian, and other minority immigrant citizens. Hookah lounges across the country have come to serve as safe gathering places for many diverse ethnic and religious communities. Despite the importance of this social practice and tradition, NHCA members continue to find that many policymakers are often unfamiliar with hookah, its practice, and its community. NHCA fully supports efforts to eliminate youth access and usage of tobacco products, including hookah. Hookah is unlikely to be used or consumed by youth for many reasons. Hookah water pipes are expensive, several feet tall, not easily concealed, and the setup for use is a lengthy process. Lounges that offer hookah are restricted to of-age customers, preventing teens from accessing the product. Recent research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that of those middle and high school students who reported using tobacco, just 1% used hookah in the past 30 days, ten times less than the number of teens or youth who vape. Shisha, the product used in hookah, is a combination of tobacco and a sugar substance such as honey or molasses, and the total product is only comprised of approximately 15% tobacco. As has been the practice for hundreds of years, hookah is, by nature, a flavored product. Unfortunately, noble efforts to address the teen vaping epidemic by banning flavored tobacco also would result in the ban of ALL hookah. A ban on hookah would not only eliminate this important cultural practice for many U.S. citizens, but could also shutter many small, independent, and minority owned businesses. Many of these businesses serve as community gathering places for immigrant populations in cities across the country. Many hookah users are part of religious or ethnic populations that already face discrimination. Eliminating this cultural practice would make many feel as though they are misunderstood and targeted as an outsider by lawmakers and regulators. We ask that you do not target this important cultural practice and shutter minority and immigrant owned businesses. Please grant an exemption hookah for both retail and lounges from the scope of any flavored tobacco ban legislation. National Hookah Community Association

I am a 30 year resident of Cuyahoga County. Prior to moving here, I lived in New Haven, CT and Baltimore, MD. In CT, I often drove to the West Haven waterfront on the Long Island Sound, where I'd have dinner, shop, and walk along the shoreline. In Baltimore, I lived there during the development of the Inner Harbor. I worked in a restaurant, shopped, and attended festivals there. When I moved to the North Shore, I foolishly expected the Cleveland waterfront to have similar, or even better, retail and tourist development. Boy, was I wrong. Over the years, I've often lamented how sad and inadequate the shoreline of Cleveland remains. Proper expansion would yield a lot more revenue than the Burke Airport. It would become a tourist destination, just like the Inner Harbor. Retail and dining would thrive, if built to be user friendly year-round. Hotels & residences would command top dollar. Tax revenues would be huge. This should have been done many years ago. Not another decade should go by. Please don't let the monied few, who utilized prime real estate for private planes, deprive Cleveland of a potential crown jewel to be enjoyed by all.

First, I want to praise City Council for the efforts in the past year towards decriminalizing fare evasion. I am an Ohio resident who was born and raised in Cleveland, and while riding the Healthline as a black man, I faced harassment from transit police to present my pass, and witnessed other, always black, riders being "escorted" (read: manhandled) off the bus over failure to prove that they paid. I know firsthand and secondhand that this punitive system has only hurt everyone it impacts. To celebrate Transit Equity Day coming up, and the concept of transit equity as a whole, I request for the members of City Council to give up use of their cars for one week and only rely on transit. From transit police to poor sidewalk clearance during the winter to reduced bus lines, I think the only way to truly understand what needs to be done to restore the RTA to what it was 30 years ago is to experience its current deficits directly. Even if this request is too much for ask, I trust and believe that City Council always acts with the best interest of the city of Cleveland and will consider the thoughts and experiences of its residents who have the most to gain and the most to lose in their policymaking.

Dear Cleveland City Council, I am a resident of the Tremont neighborhood and am writing as an individual in my personal capacity to encourage you to join in celebrating Transit Equity Day on February 4th, 2023, which is observed each year in honor of the life and legacy of Rosa Parks on her birthday. I also encourage you to commit to the Clevelanders for Public Transit Transit Equity Day challenge by committing to ride public transportation for a week beginning that day. Experiencing public transportation first-hand is an important way to build understanding and empathy about the ridership experience, and to break down the "windshield bias" that develops from only experiencing life from behind the windshield of a car. When you try transit, you may also find yourself walking and biking more to get to/from bus or train stops as well - giving you more perspective about sidewalk and bike lane/trail conditions as well. There are great resources to learn about improving transit - two excellent books are Better Buses, Better Cities by Steven Highashide, and Human Transit by Jarrett Walker (who has a long-running blog by the same name: https://humantransit.org/) My family moved to Cleveland in May 2022, and we are thankful to be able to share one car while meeting many of our transportation needs by walking, biking, and using transit. We appreciate all of the efforts by the City of Cleveland to make walking, biking, and transit safe and convenient options, and we know there is more work to do. Thank you for efforts on Complete and Greet Streets, and Vision Zero. Sincerely, Andrea Hamre, PhD Tremont Resident andreahamre.wordpress.com